Reframing Israel is a project supported by a growing number of rabbis, educators, and parents who believe that the Jewish community needs a new framework for teaching about Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They encourage Jewish communal institutions to foster critical thinking and self-reflection so that Jewish children and teenagers can ask challenging questions, develop a strong commitment to social justice, and discover their unique voices.

Reframing Israel is built around a curriculum written by Rabbi Laurie Zimmerman. She was ordained in 2003 by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and has been the rabbi and education director of Congregation Shaarei Shamayim in Madison, Wisconsin since her ordination.                                                                

For the past twelve years she has been immersed in the educational aspects of congregational life—teaching children and teenagers, mentoring college students, and engaging adult learners. She has led several workshops on curriculum development, active learning in the classroom, and new models of Jewish education.

For more on her thinking about American Jews and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, read her sermons, “Rethinking Ethnic Solidarity: Israel and Jewish Peoplehood” (Yom Kippur 2014) and “My Changing Dreams of Israel” (Yom Kippur 2016).